


where angels fear to thread

by glowstones



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ancient Greece & Rome, I have nothing to say but here a lick of courage, M/M, Or I finished reading tsoa and I’m destroyed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:40:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27156730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glowstones/pseuds/glowstones
Summary: Or, Jason gets ready for war.
Relationships: Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Comments: 2
Kudos: 85





	where angels fear to thread

**Author's Note:**

> I have nothing to say except a sleepless mind and a finished book will make you do very dumb things.

Tim waits quietly outside the temple, ripping apart pieces of bread to feed the pigeons. People stare at him as they leave, and he raises his head at many, who nod in return. They would have thought him a beggar if it wasn’t for the silk in his toga and the gold around his neck. It felt foolishly heavy when he had put it on, but it was the last thing his mother had given him before she passed and despite having found a new family, it was the only thing he couldn’t part with. Stephanie had made a noise when she saw him, shook her head, and poured herself another glass of wine. 

“You’re going to get robbed,” She promised him, tilting her cup. She’s not drunk but she’s on her way there. It’s common knowledge that she would be wed tomorrow, and while the man was a warrior who he’d seen many fawn after, the look Steph gave him was never the same as she had given to Cass. “Just make your sacrifice here, like the rest of us.”

He couldn’t. He was aching with hunger that is only filled with hearing the hollows of your name from a lover’s throat to follow. He wanted his sacrifice to Aphrodite to give him hope again, and it only seemed right to do it at what remained of her temple. He wanted for Aphrodite to swallow his love for Jason, have it melt into her veins and flow back into the universe. It’s a foolish hope, tomorrow the rest of the Spartan troops would go to war and Jason, a man with Ares blessing would follow. Stephanie gives him another look when he shrugged and walks out of the door, and she goes back to sipping her wine by the hearth.

Eventually, the birds hunger become sedated, and they mull around Tim picking endlessly at the bread. There’s not many left, and most men are clumped together, outside, drinking wine while watching women frolic for flowers. He had never fit in with them, it was never a woman’s bosom that captured him, but a man’s smile and after years of praying to Aphrodite, even Zeus for a means to fix him, he had given up the idea of loving his wife and instead hoped to find content instead of melancholy when he laid in bed next to her.

“I never met a man who thought more than you ever did.” Jason says when he steps out the temple. His hair falls in his face, matted together by sweat, and he smells tantalizingly sweet when he flops down beside Tim. His eyes are to the sun, and when Tim closes his eyes, he can imagine the wings folded neatly behind. “Perhaps you belong in Athens.”

“There are different ways to fight a war.” Tim says, and the birds watches them, eyes wide, as they wait to be fed. Some fly away, leaving a small breeze in their wake, but all it sends is hot air in his face.

“But there’s only one way to end it.” Jason responds, his voice taught and wairy. They sit, rarely touching, but deeply in love. In the moment they merge into a being without a name, existing between their bated breaths, holding a heavy tongue filled with words that do not belong to a warrior and his brother “I prayed to the Gods for my safety. Should that bring you any comfort.”

“Bruce made us pray too.” He would have prayed anyway. Absolving himself of any sin of not praying for loving a man who he could not have. “You should talk to him before you leave.”

“I sent a message alongside Talia.” Jason says, and he feels the great relief of knowing he would not have to share Jason in their final moments. “I’m not sure if she heard it. Damian had been crying all day long.”

Damian had cried every day it seemed, and Bruce, a warrior of his own right, would sit cautiously outside his doorway when Tim had managed to walk by. It was always like that now, either standing beside Talia as she whispered the child to sleep, or standing inside of Jason’s old room that was collecting dust. It had been Talia’s decision to send her own eldest to war, now that Bruce gave Dick land to keep him and his wife close. Kori had a gentle smile and a soft voice, and often laughed loudly when the girls had trained. Jason had agreed readily, eager to prove something and Bruce had watched, distress in the event’s prespairing.

“He doesn’t get it,” He told Tim one night while Bruce watched Stephanie giggle with Kori, and Dick roughhousing with Jason. It had been sweltering outside, and Tim, tired of the heat and the loneliness, sat indoors, sipping warm wine, and listen to Bruce rant. He had taken him in, given him his name as he had done with Dick, Cass and Steph. “War corrupts everything it touches, the tongue, the hands, and even the feet. It is not the life I want for Jason. It's not the life I want for any one of you.”

Tim had shrugged, poured himself another and said. “Some people are born of war.”

Jason had always been, even know, with his sword hung on his belt, and his toga slipping dangerously off. A bird pecks on his feet, and Tim curses, and laughter spills from Jason lips when he attempts to kick it. It’s a sound Tim would eats his way through devotion just to hear and Jason tilts his head to the side, tender in his touches when he grasps Tim hand and says, “Let's visit the caves. It’s my last day here, you know.”    
  


“And do what? Swim?”

“No.” Jason gives him a lazy smile, and around them, the women carry a new found jug of wine back to their homes, and the sun sets as Apollo continues his trek back home, and Jason stands, the hazy yellow bleeding out of him like ichor. He was born and once was enough, but standing here felt like reincarnation. “But I prayed to the gods to spend my last day here with someone I love.”

“Shall I go grab Rose?” He jokes and Jason gives him a look, tearing his beating heart of his flesh. “Or Essence.”

  
“I don’t want familial love. I want Aphrodite and Ares. I want Artemis and the Moon. I want Icarus and Apollo.” Jason’s saying, his speech of grandeur not lost to Tim’s ears. The sky grows to a rosy pink, the birds fly away, the women giggle and the men tip their own wine to the air.“Before I leave. Perhaps Aphrodite would bless me with what I want.”

_ I want you, Tim.  _ Jason says, the words spilling mutely from his lips. _ I want you The way you want me. Even if it’s not enough to change fate. _


End file.
